Regret
by PhantomWriter2.0
Summary: Diego begins to doubt that he can control his predator side around the new addition. Will he regret his decisions?
1. Chapter o n e

_I promise everyone that I have not abandoned 'Midnight Menagerie'. I just got this idea after watching the 3rd movie and had to write it. This was originally meant to be a one-shot, but I think I'll make it a two chapter story. I loved Diego's angst and just had to add to it. If you've seen the movie, you know just what I'm typing about._

_WARNING: SPOILERS!!!_

* * *

A mere week and a half had passed since the herd's dinosaurian adventure and Peaches was growing up fast, though she was still quite delicate. Manny treated her as if she were a thin piece of glass. Crash and Eddie kept the young mammoth occupied while Manny and Ellie supervised. Sid also tried to play with the trio, but the possums were relentless in their abuse of the ungainly sloth. Diego had been…distant and the only ones who seemed to notice were Sid and Ellie. Manny was oblivious to his friend's problems.

* * *

As the sun began to show its golden rays, Diego rose from his place beside Sid and proceeded into the snowy prairie. He tracked a young bush-antlered deer until he could just see the light brown and white-striped pelt of the animal. The animal was large, but still young enough not to have learned how to use the many pointed antlers upon its head efficiently.

Diego slipped into a hunter's crouch and began to creep along the rocky and snow-dusted ground stealthily. A rock slipped from under his paw when he was only half the distance from the deer that he needed to be. The deer leaped high into the air instantly at the sound. Diego cursed his bad luck and sprang forward with a roar. His paws moved in that rhythmic pattern that he so relished. The terrible fatigue that had once overtook him at such exertion no longer seemed to pester him. Though, he was still a saber and stamina during the chase was not part of his species' abilities. He had to end this quick or the deer would win, again. He was not about to let that happen.

When he was nearly upon the animal, he took his last reserves of power and launched himself onto the back of the young buck. That's when a flash of orange-brown fur caught his eye. Unfortunately, his short lack of attention gave the young buck enough time to throw back his head and near-skewer the saber's paw on his sharpened tines. Diego released the buck with a growl and hiss of pain, along with another growl of indignation when he was unceremoniously dumped from the deer's back.

Diego struggled back to his paws, hissing in pain when he stepped on his injured paw. He looked around to see what had caught his eye and spotted Peaches. He froze when he saw the look of terror on the young mammoth's face. Just then, Crash and Eddie ran up to stand between the two. Diego blinked a few times but still couldn't find words. Much to Diego's horror, Peaches cowered in the long brown grass behind the possums. Crash and Eddie saw this and both adopted very confused expressions.

"What happened?" Crash asked.

"Yeah and why's Peaches all scared?" Eddie added, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"Peaches! There you are! Where did you get the idea that it was okay to ditch Crash and Eddie?" Manny cried, half-heartedly chastising his daughter.

"Daddy, tiger bein mean to deer." Peaches exclaimed, running to her father for comfort. Diego looked down in shame. He knew he shouldn't feel ashamed for being what he was, but with this herd he couldn't help it. He always felt like the odd one out. While the others were happily munching on leaves and dandelions and rotten fruit, he was busy watching the other animals in the area and licking his lips.

Diego turned and walked away, hoping his limp wasn't too obvious. "Where're you going?" He heard Manny ask and flinched.

The saber looked back over his shoulder at the bull mammoth. "I'm gonna go try to eat something."

"With that limp, you're not gonna catch anything but a snail." Manny responded, almost as a joke.

"Or a sloth!" Eddie added with a high-five to his brother.

"Very funny, I'm off." Diego muttered and limped away with all the grace he could muster. Manny, to his displeasure, did not understand Diego's dilemma and watched his friend go in confusion.

"What's eatin him?" Manny asked with a chuckle at his own pun. Crash and Eddie watched their friend go sadly; knowing part of what was bothering the saber. The two possums shook their heads at Manny's cluelessness as well.

* * *

Diego trudged through the snow up to his favorite thinking place. From there, he could look out across the entire valley. Manny had insisted that the herd stay in the safety of the valley until Peaches was much older and the decision was seriously decreasing his chances of a successful hunt. The other animals knew there was a saber in the valley and they stuck together.

The tawny-coated saber sighed as he sat back on his haunches on the cold stone and stared out upon the snowy plain. As he watched, deer and aardvarks and glyptodonts grazed happily on the new growth that spring in the Ice Age was slowly bringing.

How could he stay with his 'herd' when he could potentially hurt the baby that Manny would so willingly die to protect? The longer he stayed the more danger the young mammoth was in. He just couldn't trust himself around the child and he knew Sid and Ellie were beginning to notice his distance. He had also promised Manny that he wouldn't leave them again. He was not one to go back on his promises.

He lied to Manny when he told him that he wanted to leave before because he wanted more adventure. That may have been part of it, but the main reason was his predatory instincts.

He slowly limped his way back to the camp with a resigned feeling in his paws and heart.

* * *

"Manny," he tried to catch the mammoth's attention as he bustled around the makeshift playground "Manny, I need to—"

"Not now, Diego! Peaches is gonna come to the playground for awhile and it has to be perfect!" Manny hustled around relentlessly, creating more mess than order.

"It's already perfect. Will you please just listen to me for one second?" Diego was beginning to get frustrated and that wouldn't be good for either of them. He took a deep, calming breath and leaped gracefully onto a rock that set him at shoulder height to the mammoth.

Manny turned on the saber and poked him roughly with his trunk. "No, I'm busy. Don't you have some poor defenseless animal to disembowel?" This comment stunned Diego into silence as he knew Manny had said something similar to that some time before…when Diego had been an enemy. Diego's ears went back and his eyes went down. He turned and leaped from the rock. He jumped the short fence encircling the playground and limped away, not looking back to see Manny's reaction to his sudden departure.

* * *

_I do love Diego's angst. I'm trying to think if Manny did actually say 'Don't you have some poor defenseless animal to disembowel?' I skimmed through a script I found for the first movie online and didn't see it, but I'm pretty sure he said it somewhere._

_For those of you who have been loyally following 'Midnight Menagerie', this is just a plot bunny that attacked me while watching the movie._

_-Phantom_


	2. Chapter t w o

_Okay, this is taking longer than I would have liked due to my reawakened love of X-men: Evolution. Sorry to all whom I have kept waiting, but here's the next chapter. Let me know if you want to continue this or finish up midnight Menagerie first._

* * *

Diego knew Manny was under stress, but Diego was thinking more of Peaches' safety than his own well-being. Though, if he admitted it to himself, leaving the herd was better for him as well, because then he might be able to concentrate on his hunting instead of worrying whether Sid or Peaches or any of the others saw him make his kill. Diego also knew that Manny would not take his departure lightly and that the mammoth wouldn't listen anymore once he understood that Diego was leaving. This, needless to say, was going to be difficult. The saber decided to let Manny calm down a bit before he tried again. Also, stalling was probably in his best interest.

Diego winced as he licked the dried blood from his paw. '_This is what happens when you hang around with herbivores, Diego._' He chastised himself. He could feel that the wound would keep him from catching anything substantial for awhile. He'd be scavenging and going after slower animals for a week or so. '_Long week…_' he thought to himself.

"Hey, Diego! What'd you do to freak out Peaches like that?" Sid, as always, being his sensitive self.

"Hey Sid," the saber answered, with none of the sloth's enthusiasm.

"What's up, mi ani-migo?" Sid asked.

"Ani-migo?" Diego questioned.

"Yeah, it's like my animal friend! Ani-migo!" Diego turned his back on the sloth and continued licking his wounded paw.

"What happened to your paw? That looks bad; you should get Ellie to look at that." Sid's bubbly personality was dialed down a bit, allowing his concern for his friend to show through. Diego, however, didn't spare him a glance.

"I got distracted," was his cryptic response.

Despite Sid's odd habits and usually annoying personality, he indeed carried a heart of gold and he did have a good brain between those uneven eyes of his, even if he wasn't conditioned to actually use it most of the time. Sid sensed his friend's troubled thoughts and knew that the cat wanted to be left alone. Sid dragged his piece of bark to Diego's side and lay down on the curved piece of wood with a sigh.

Diego growled as he pulled a small sliver of bark from his paw that had somehow gotten lodged in the wound. He felt Sid's prying eyes on him and sighed heavily. "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but what is it, Sid?"

"What's wrong? You've been…." Sid trailed off, trying to think of the right word.

"Distant," Ellie had noticed their conversation and decided to help Sid out. Sid gave her a small smile and Diego looked bored. "You've been distant lately. You won't come within ten feet of Peaches since we left Buck's world. Is something bothering you?" Ellie questioned worriedly, her mothering side coming into play.

"I'm fine. I'm just…thinking." Diego said and set down his paw with an unnoticeable wince. Sid and Ellie exchanged disbelieving looks.

"About?" Sid prompted.

"Look, my problems are mine, not yours. They have nothing to do with any of you!" '_Darn, lost my cool there_' he looked at the two leaf-eaters before him '_looks like it's too late to apologize._' He got to his paws quickly and limped off for the third time that day.

"Manny, you need to talk to him." Ellie said softly, worry causing her to lower her voice.

"I'm sensing some deja-vu here." He said, referring to the incident just before they went on their rescue mission to Buck's under-ice world. Ellie's expression became firm and she stepped up to the bull mammoth angrily.

"Something is seriously wrong with him and you're the only one he'll talk to!"

"Excuse me, but the last time I talked to him he walked off and left!"

"Well, that's better than having him brooding in the corner forever!" With that Ellie turned and left to go check on Peaches. Manny watched his mate go in silence. _'What could possibly be bothering Diego now? I thought we were over this whole thing about him leaving?' _Manny thought to himself with an exasperated sigh. He decided to talk to the moody saber in the morning when Diego's eyes wouldn't be the only thing he saw of the tiger before he left…again.

As Manny watched, Sid waddled into the clearing carrying a surprisingly large pile of sticks, which he set down a few feet from the ring of rocks where Sid built the herd's fire every night. The possums followed soon after with Peaches on their heels. Peaches broke off from the chase when she saw Manny and ran to him, crying "Daddy!" Ellie came a good while later and lay down next to him, just far enough from him not to be touching; she was still mad.

Ellie's warm green eyes periodically darted to the clump of bushes where Diego almost always entered from. After nearly two hours, the troubled saber finally showed up and lay down next to Sid with his back turned toward the others. Ellie sent Manny and stern and meaningful glance. Manny nodded, mentally promising her he would talk to the saber tomorrow.

Unfortunately for Manny, Diego was nowhere to be found when the mammoth awoke early the next morning. _'He must be out hunting, though I don't know how he expects to catch anything with that injured paw of his.'_

Manny left the clearing to find some food before he had to have his—almost certainly—possibly awkward talk with Diego. As Manny browsed, he contemplated the possible things that could be bothering his saber-toothed friend. "Could it have something to do with Peaches? O maybe us staying in the same place for so long?" He wondered to himself aloud.

"Close, but no deer. Those two things have something to do with it." Manny looked up to see a pair of familiar emerald green eyes staring down at him from a rocky ledge. When Manny didn't respond, Diego spoke for him, "Ellie sent you, didn't she?" No reply. Diego sat back on his haunches and sighed heavily. "Look, I'll put it straight for you so we don't have to go through that whole you-punch-me-in-the-shoulder-then-you-start-trying-to-get-me-to-tell-you-what's-wrong thing. I need to leave."

Manny's eyes went wide and his anger flared. "Oh no, you promised you wouldn't leave again! I thought you had your adventure?"

"It's not like that. I just told you that because I didn't think you would understand if I told you the truth. Put simply, Peaches is in danger around me." Diego waited tensely for Manny's reaction.

The mammoth blinked a few times before the realization sunk in. "What!? How is Peaches in danger just because you're around her!?"

Diego looked away and tried to contain his growing irritation.

"Will you let me speak?" Diego ground out between slightly clenched teeth. Manny stopped speaking and nodded. "Thank you," Diego nodded and seemed to calm down before…"I'm a _saber_, Manny! Do you not see how my very _existence_ around her is dangerous? That by just being near her could kill her?"

"You're our friend, why would you hurt her?" Manny asked quietly.

"Peaches is a lot more fragile than Sid and the possums. She keeps wanting me to play with her and I can't. I'm bigger and stronger than her and I was _made_ to kill her. I just can't stay around here knowing that I could potentially harm her. If I leave now, by the time she's three years old, I'll be a distant memory and you can get on with your lives." Diego couldn't make himself meet the mammoth's saddened eyes.

"Where will you go?" Manny asked in a voice so quiet and sad, Diego thought it could have been just the wind.

"I'll roam around till I find a nice territory and, I don't know…maybe start a family of my own." Diego smiled and Manny forced one of his own. Diego could see the tears forming in his friend's large brown eyes. "I'll miss you guys; you know that, but it's better for everyone in the long run. I can concentrate on my hunting, the possums can focus more on Sid, Ellie and you can have some time to yourselves, Peaches will be safe…It'll be better." Diego went to jump down from the rock ledge when Manny stopped him with three words…

"What about Sid?" Diego froze, neither mammal moving for what seemed an eternity.

"He'll be fine. He won't have to worry about me sneaking up on him in the night and scaring the lights out of him." Diego still couldn't force himself to look into Manny's tear-filled eyes. "Bye Manny. Tell everyone goodbye for me, will you?" Diego cast a glance back over his shoulder and Manny nodded, trying not to let his tears fall. Diego smiled before jumping from the ledge and trotting into the long, deadened grass.

* * *

_Ooooh, dramatic ending. As I said at the top, let me know if you guys want me to continue this or finish up Midnight Menagerie first. As soon as I'm done with these I'll be over working on X-men: Evolution fics for awhile, though I may come back to write a one-shot or two for Ice Age, because the Ice Age section really needs it._

_Also, if you do want me to continue this one, I'm gonna need some ideas. There are so many possibilities, but I'm tempted to just leave it with this dramatic ending. Wha'dya think? *waiting for the yelling*_

_-Phantom_


End file.
